VF-31 and VF-49 dogfight 15 August 45

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Barrett
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VF-31 and VF-49 dogfight 15 August 45

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Post by Barrett » 26 May 2020, 20:52

Most accounts of VJ Day focus on Yorktown's VF-88 v. (probably) 302nd Kokutai c. 0700.

However, it appears that the biggest fight was c. an hour earlier (around 0600) with multiple players: VF-31 Belleau Wood and VF-49 San Jacinto both with 4 Hellcats on a joint sweep-strike, coincidentally overlapping HMS Indefatigable's mission with Avengers & Seafires. The Americans reported 12 Zekes and 3 Oscars, which probably was ID problems because the IJN/JAAF cordially detested each other. (Interservice rivalry in Tokyo was practically a full contact sport, as I noted in Whirlwind.) Or maybe a Ki.43 flight crossed paths, don't know.

Anyway:

I've not found any likely candidates for the IJN unit. Entirely possible that the incident went unreported because nearly all the Japanese were claimed shot down (13 by Hellcats). But any leads-speculation gratefully received.

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